22:14 My strength drains away like water; 5
all my bones are dislocated;
my heart 6 is like wax;
it melts away inside me.
22:15 The roof of my mouth 7 is as dry as a piece of pottery;
my tongue sticks to my gums. 8
You 9 set me in the dust of death. 10
1 tn Heb “this night.”
2 sn Bread made without yeast could be baked quickly, not requiring time for the use of a leavening ingredient to make the dough rise. In Deut 16:3 the unleavened cakes are called “the bread of affliction,” which alludes to the alarm and haste of the Israelites. In later Judaism and in the writings of Paul, leaven came to be a symbol of evil or corruption, and so “unleavened bread” – bread made without yeast – was interpreted to be a picture of purity or freedom from corruption or defilement (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 90-91).
3 sn This ruling was to prevent their eating it just softened by the fire or partially roasted as differing customs might prescribe or allow.
4 sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 294-95) shows that the intent of the passage was not to make this month in the spring the New Year – that was in the autumn. Rather, when counting months this was supposed to be remembered first, for it was the great festival of freedom from Egypt. He observes how some scholars have unnecessarily tried to date one New Year earlier than the other.
5 tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”
6 sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.
7 tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhiy), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khikiy, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.
8 tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”
9 sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).
10 sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.